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Published : 04 May 2026, 08:40 PM
Around 500,000 Bangladeshi women now perform their transactions under a unified offering of BRAC Bank’s flagship women’s banking platform TARA.
On its ninth anniversary, a statement from the bank said the platform has evolved into a comprehensive two-part ecosystem that currently represents approximately 25 percent of the nation’s retail banking deposits held by women.
Launched on May 4, 2017, TARA was designed to engage women at different stages of their financial journeys, the statement added.
The platform is built on two interconnected pillars -- TARA Retail and TARA SME -- which assist women from opening their first bank account to managing and expanding their own businesses.
What began as an inclusive banking initiative has since evolved into a dependable partner for thousands of women nationwide.
TARA Retail
TARA Retail caters to women across all eight divisions of Bangladesh, which include salaried employees, homemakers, students, first-time savers, and senior citizens.
Over 350,000 of these are retail clients, collectively holding deposits exceeding Tk 140 billion.
The BRAC Bank statement said the TARA platform has expanded its retail client base by over 80 times and increased deposits by more than 60 times over the course of its journey, reflecting the progression of a platform that began as a segment and has since evolved into a full ecosystem.
The Homemaker Account has eliminated the income-verification requirement that previously excluded women managing households without formal earnings, with 98 percent of new customers onboarded digitally via eKYC.
The TARA Virtual Savings Account, featuring a virtual debit card, has further extended access to women who prefer entirely digital banking, it added.
Beyond financial products, the bank engages with women customers during significant occasions such as Mother’s Day, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and International Women’s Day, using these moments to provide meaningful value.
The Mother’s Day campaign highlights the financial connection between mothers and children through joint accounts and nominee linkages, while Breast Cancer Awareness Month includes hospital-partnered screenings and awareness initiatives.
According to the statement, the TARA Ambassador Training programme has trained 120 frontline employees in 2025 on gender-sensitive service approaches, focusing on improving how women experience banking when visiting branches.
It also said the TARA SME supports over 128,000 entrepreneurs, maintaining a loan portfolio above Tk 26 billion and deposits exceeding Tk 28 billion.
The segment recorded 17 percent asset growth and 72 percent deposit growth in the latest year, while keeping its non-performing loan ratio at 1.14 percent.
From financing to market access, business expertise, digital capability, and professional networking, the segment aims to bridge the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh.
As noted in the statement, TARA Uddokta Mela has organised four events involving over 300 entrepreneurs, creating large-scale market opportunities.
Uddokta 101, now in its 19th cohort, has trained more than 500 women in areas such as business management, digital marketing, taxation, and market linkage. “Amrai TARA” has reached 1,200 entrepreneurs across 33 districts, while “Uddog TARA” connects with over 1,000 women annually through market enlistment and digital training.
The WSME Branch Training programme, active across 191 branches in 64 districts, educates more than 2,000 women entrepreneurs each year on financial literacy and documentation.
The statement highlighted that over 2,000 women entrepreneurs have also been provided with a free one-year ERP subscription, enabling them to digitally monitor business transactions.
A Globally Recognised Model
Among more than 81 financial institutions that are part of the Financial Alliance for Women, which is a New York-based global network promoting the female economy across 135 countries, BRAC Bank is the only Bangladeshi bank to have received seven awards across different categories.
As said by the bank, TARA has secured multiple international recognitions from the Financial Alliance for Women, including the Women’s Market Champion Engagement Asia Award in 2017, 2018, and 2019; the Access to Finance Champion award for four consecutive years through 2020; and most recently, the Gender Data Champion award at the Champions of the Female Economy Awards 2025 in Kampala, for leveraging comprehensive gender-segregated data to generate actionable insights supporting women’s financial inclusion in Bangladesh.
TARA has also been recognised at the Global SME Finance Awards organised by the IFC and the SME Finance Forum under the World Bank Group.
In 2024, BRAC Bank received Platinum awards for Product Innovation of the Year in Best Commercial Bank in both the Global and Asia categories.
The statement said these achievements collectively position TARA as a Bangladeshi banking model with international relevance.
“TARA was built on the conviction that women are not a niche to be served, but a market to be served well,” said Tareq Refat Ullah Khan, Managing Director and CEO of BRAC Bank.
“Nine years on, the trajectory of the proposition and what it has meant for hundreds of thousands of women across Bangladesh affirms that conviction. Our work is not finished. It is, in many ways, just beginning.”
